Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

120. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare services that have signed a core funding contract to date; the average payment to a service under core funding; the aggregate monetary support provided to early years' services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56920/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Affordable, accessible, high-quality and sustainable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government. On 15th September, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare. This new funding model will support delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families.

Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model, the National Childcare Scheme and the new Core Funding scheme.

I am delighted that to date, 4,141 early learning and childcare providers have applied for Core Funding over 93% of the sector. This is a tremendous level of uptake and will make a positive impact for parents and children using these services through investment in quality and in affordability with more funding for staff and a commitment not to increase fees.

Core Funding has a budget of €259 million in full year costs for year 1 of the programme (September 2022-August 2023) to start this partnership for the public good between the State and providers.

The latest available data, as of 15^thNovember, indicates an average weekly Core Funding grant per service of €1,166.86 and an average annual Core Funding grant, for a full 52 week programme year, of €60,676.85 per service. Many Partner Services are currently in the process of submitting changes to their Core Funding application, and therefore the average grants may change in the coming weeks.

From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, my Department and the State more broadly put in place a range of supports for early learning and childcare services, estimated to cost €1 billion. The objective of these supports were to:

- support providers’ sustainability to enable services return to normal once restrictions were lifted;

- support providers to retain their staff;

- ensure that services could reopen and remain open, even at very low levels of occupancy;

- ensure that services could operate safely for children, families and staff;

- ensure that increased costs associated with public health requirements, and lower demand / occupancy were not passed on to parents; achieve administrative efficiency through the continued use of existing funding schemes and other whole of economy supports; and

- protect exchequer investment.

Supports in 2020 included:

- The continuation of funding under the DCEDIY schemes on an ex gratis basis (13 March - 5 April)

- The Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (6 April – 28 June 2020); which was layered on top of the Revenue operated Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and provided a top-up for wages of eligible early learning and care and school-age childcare staff and a further payment to be used towards ongoing/non-deferrable operational costs such as rent, insurance and ICT.

- The Reopening Funding Package, (29 June – 23 August 2020), which included a once-off Reopening Support Payment (RSP), a once-off Covid-19 capital grant.

The table below shows the 2020 expenditure amounts for the sector across DCEDIY subsidy schemes and DCEDIY Covid-19 supports.

In 2021, the DCEDIY provided supports under the Covid-19 Operating Support Payment, the Playing Outdoor Grant and the Ventilation Grant, as follows:

In addition to these DCEDIY supports, the TWSS was estimated to cost €100m and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), was estimated to cost €632m. The EWSS:

- at enhanced rates from October 2020- January 2022 covered 80% of staff costs /50% of staff costs at a monthly cost of €34m per month.

- at standard rates, from August-September 2020 and February 2022 covered 50% of staff costs/38% of operating costs cost €22m per month.

- at flat rates, from March and April 2022, covered 25% of staff costs/ 11% of operating costs at a monthly cost of €11m per month.

From August 2020 until the end of April, early learning and childcare services were able to access the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) without having to demonstrate a reduction in turnover. This significant level of funding to the sector ensured that fees remained largely static and that providers continued to be sustainable. In addition, the temporary Transition Fund - put in place to bridge the gap between the end of the EWSS and the introduction of core funding - operated from May-August 2022, with expenditure of €23m.

There was other supports to the sector provided during the pandemic, including the PUP, the Restart Grant and the commercial rates waiver.

I am committed to ensuring more stability of income for services, and that is one of the key objectives of Core Funding. Together for Better aims to transform the sector and I am committed to working with Partner Services delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.